Technology - Google News

Google completes purchase of Fitbit - The Verge

Posted: 14 Jan 2021 06:35 AM PST

Google has completed its $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit, the company announced today. The news follows the EU's announcement late last year that it had approved the deal, after Google made a series of commitments about its planned operation of Fitbit and use of the its health data.

In its announcement, Google's hardware chief Rick Osterloh said the acquisition was "about devices, not data." Emphasizing this point, he reiterated Google's commitments about how it will handle the acquisition in markets around the world. These pledges include not using Fitbit users' health and wellness data for Google's ad tracking.

Osterloh also said the deal won't affect how third-party fitness trackers work with Android, or how Fitbit works with other non-Google services.

In a statement, Fitbit's CEO James Park welcomed the news, and said the acquisition would let the company "innovate faster, provide more choices, and make even better products." However, he added emphasized that Fitbit's products and services would continue to work across both iOS and Android.

"We will maintain strong data privacy and security protections, giving you control of your data and staying transparent about what we collect and why," Park said.

It was data concerns like these that have prompted regulators around the world to investigate the deal. Late last year, EU regulators gave the deal their approval, completing an investigation they began back in August.

The approval came with a number of conditions, including that Google cannot use Fitbit data from users in the European Economic Area (EEA) such as GPS and health data for ad targeting. As part of the approval, EEA users must also be able to opt-out of having their health and wellness data shared with other Google services, and Google has agreed to continue to support third-party wearables with Android. Those commitments, includingf the option to opt out, will apply to Fitbit users worldwide, Google tells The Verge, so that users outside the EEA can take advantage.

Google's announcement appears to have been made prior to the Australia's Competition & Consumer Commission's (ACCC) final decision on the acquisition. In late December, The Guardian reported that Google risked up to a $400 million fine if it proceeded with the deal without the regulator's approval.

At the time, the ACCC rejected Google's proposed conditions for the deal over data concerns as well as fears that it could force Fitbit's rivals out of the wearables market because of their reliance on Google's Android. Although ACCC Chair Rod Sims acknowledged the concessions Google had offered, he expressed concerns that they could not be "effectively monitored and enforced in Australia." The Australian regulator said its investigation would continue, ahead of a new decision date of March 25th, 2021.

Google declined to comment on the record regarding the ACCC's ongoing investigation.

The US Department of Justice also released a statement on Thursday saying it, too, was still investigating the deal, and that it had not reached a conclusion prior to Google's announcement.

"The Antitrust Division's investigation of Google's acquisition of Fitbit remains ongoing. Although the Division has not reached a final decision about whether to pursue an enforcement action, the Division continues to investigate whether Google's acquisition of Fitbit may harm competition and consumers in the United States," reads the statement, according to The New York Times. "The Division remains committed to conducting this review as thoroughly, efficiently, and expeditiously as possible."

Google announced its acquisition of Fitbit over a year ago in November 2019, when Osterloh called it "an opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market."

In his letter announcing the acquisition, Park said Fitbit has now sold more than 120 million devices across over 100 countries.

Update January 14th, 10:13AM ET: Added statement from the Department of Justice indicating its investigation into Google's acquisition of Fitbit is ongoing.

Update January 14th, 10:41AM ET: Clarified that Google's commitments to EU regulators will apply worldwide, including the ability to opt out of data sharing. Also noted that Google declined to comment on the record regarding the ACCC's ongoing investigation of the deal.

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The Morning After: The Best of CES 2021 award winners - Engadget

Posted: 14 Jan 2021 04:43 AM PST

Congratulations to all of our winners from the Best of CES 2021, including our Best of the Best winner, AMD's Ryzen 5000 mobile CPUs. Is it weird for a chipset to best high-end TVs, robots and futuristic transport announcements? You might think so, but AMD's claims, which suggest large performance-per-watt improvements over last year's 4000 series, were impressive.

AMD still has a long way to go if it wants to snatch the Windows laptop market away from Intel, but it's making all the right moves. Intel, as CES continued, also announced a new CEO, VMWare's Pat Gelsinger. What will it do next?

We're already moving on from CES, however, as Samsung's big Unpacked event kicks off today at 10 AM ET/ 7 AM PT. Expect to see the new Galaxy S21 family and possibly some upgraded Galaxy buds. Hope you're ready for the first flagship smartphones of 2021.

— Mat Smith

Jack Dorsey breaks his silence after Trump ban

He said the company made the right choice even if it sets a 'dangerous' precedent.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made his first public statement since the social network permanently banned Donald Trump. Dorsey said he believed Twitter made the correct decision, but that "a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation." Twitter has spent much of the last two years wrestling with how to make its platform "healthier."

Dorsey echoed Twitter's previous statements on the reason for the ban, writing that "offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all."
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Ubisoft is making an open-world Star Wars game

It's the first Star Wars game in years that EA didn't make.

Just as the Lucasfilm Games brand is resurrected, it's time to put it to work on a Star Wars game — with some assistance. Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment, the team behind The Division 2, is developing an open-world Star Wars game. It marks the end of EA's exclusive rights to make Star Wars titles, which has been a bumpy ride.

Hopefully Ubisoft will go easy on the repetitive fetch quests. It's still early days for the game, but expect to hear more in 2021.
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CES has blessed us with a three-webcam laptop

The Avita Admiror II also has a 'ring light' around the screen.

One of the final devices we spotted at this year's CES was the Avita Admiror II, a Chinese laptop aimed squarely at the conference call reality of work in 2021. It has three webcams, each with a different level of zoom and an intriguing ring-light bezel around the screen to offer "consistent, gently diffused lighting."

Alas, that's all we got in terms of specs; there's no word on the CPU, GPU, screen resolution or even webcam resolution. (Not to mention a price or release date.) You might not have heard of Nexstgo until now, but you would most likely have come across VAIO. The former has been a licensee of VAIO in Asia since mid-June 2018, after Sony sold the brand.
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CD Projekt Red co-founder apologizes for the sorry state of 'Cyberpunk 2077'

The first of two major patches for the game will arrive within the next 10 days.

Patch #1, as the studio has taken to calling it, is the first of two updates that will address the game's problems on last-gen consoles, and it's slated to arrive within the next couple of weeks. Patch #2, which it's saying is a larger and more significant update, will follow in February.

As to how we got here with Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński tried to offer an explanation and apology. According to him, the game's issues, particularly on console, result mainly from the technology — designed for PCs — used to stream the game world as you play, and they weren't apparent as developers tested its various iterations.

Beyond the fixes, DLC should start to arrive after that; however, native next-gen updates for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are projected for the second half of this year.
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Feds push Tesla to recall 158,000 Tegra 3-equipped vehicles

Affected EVs have a memory chip that wears out prematurely.

Years ago, Tesla touted that an NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip powered the large touchscreens in its electric vehicles. However, as configured in certain cars, the infotainment setup has a known issue that causes the 8GB eMMC NAND flash memory device to wear out after it has been overwritten too many times, and when that happens the touchscreen goes blank.

Tesla tried to address this issue with a warranty adjustment program, but NHTSA is pushing for the company to institute a recall to deal with every vehicle using the hardware. In a letter it sent to the company, the federal agency said Tesla's own information confirmed all units will eventually fail.
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But wait, there's more...

Super Nintendo World opening delayed again due to COVID-19

Google's new Assistant feature is an incognito mode for smart speakers

Fender packs Mustang tones inside its new personal guitar amplifier

Snap permanently closes Donald Trump's account

ASUS' ZenBeam Latte is a coffee cup-sized portable projector

HTC announced a new phone, the Desire 21 Pro 5G

LG's latest 4K CineBeam laser projector adjusts to your room light

Apple will build a learning hub in Atlanta as part of its racial equity pledge

ASUS made its next wave of dual-screen laptops more practical

The Razer Blade 15 vs. Alienware's M15 and the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE

Amazon says it spent months warning Parler about violent posts

LivingPackets will trial its next-gen smart delivery parcels in France

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